The Roughnecks fell behind early, tied the game with 21.4 seconds left on a penalty shot, then buried the winner in overtime as they took a lead in their two-game National Lacrosse League West Division final with the Edmonton Rush on Saturday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

“Apparently we’ve been responding pretty good under pressure lately,” opined Riggers head coach Curt Malawsky. “These guys, they have alligator blood. Nothing fazes them. It’s far from over but we’re happy to be up one-nothing.”

Curtis Dickson had tied it up in the dying seconds when the Riggers were awarded a penalty shot, due to a too-many-men call on the Rush, and Dickson was at his clinical best, netting his fourth goal of the night.

“We had a play drawn up where it was going to go through to that side at some point, but the defenceman made a good play and pushed him (Shattler) down the wall and knocked the ball out of his stick,” Malawsky said of the clincher. “He picked up the ball and had the wherewithal to be able to jump up and get that rebound, stick it in the net. He’s just a world-class athlete. Anyone who’s followed the team for a long time knows that Jeff Shattler is at his best when it comes to crunch time, especially in playoffs.”

“If I look back, there’s maybe a couple in the summer, but not in the NLL,” said Shattler, trying to recall a bigger goal he has scored in his career. “That was a great experience for me and it was awesome to see all the players run onto the floor.”

Trailing 7-5 at the half, Calgary needed to crank up the aggression, especially on defence, in the final 30 minutes and did just that, with both sides making like gladiators.

“It’s going to be a physical game, it’s a playoff game,” Malawsky pointed out. “You can’t let those guys get to the net. I think they were pretty nasty too. I think if you look all the way around, it was a nasty game and a playoff battle. We pushed back, they pushed back. I expect the same thing in Edmonton. This thing is far from over.”

Goaltender Mike Poulin faced a barrage of 56 shots and no doubt heard a half-dozen more ping off the posts behind him. But he withstood the assault and was particularly sharp in the latter stages of the game as the Rush were held to four goals in the second half.

“Sometimes when you let a soft one in, you feel like you have to make an extra effort for the guys and I was lucky to contribute tonight,” said Poulin. “We knew we’d get our opportunities up front. In years past, we’d be celebrating pretty good right now. But there’s a lot of work to do. That’s a good team and they’ll be ready next week and we have a game plan we’ll continue to follow.”

Another character of the alligator? Thick skin and the Roughnecks are going to need that when they walk into Rexall Place on Friday night.

“We have to look at it like it’s a do-or-die game,” submitted team captain Andrew McBride. “We’re going into a hostile building that’s hosting their first-ever playoff game. They’re going to have a ramped up crowd. It’s going to be an exciting challenge for us and I think it’s one of those things that we have to have a mindset that this game is done. We’ll go back, watch some tape, take a deep breath and try to compose ourselves.”

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Roughnecks gear up for Rush pushback as NLL West final series shifts to Edmonton

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